Russian-killer Mauresmo Advances to WTA Montreal Final

It's one Russian down and another to go for Amelie Mauresmo.

The Frenchwoman won a thrilling first-set tiebreak over Russian Vera "Warren" Zvonareva and went on to a 7-6(6), 6-2 win in the first semifinal at the WTA stop in Montreal Saturday.

Mauresmo, who won the event in 2002, persevered in a match that was interrupted for 52 minutes in the second set by rain, extending her career record to 4-0 over Zvonareva.

"I know her game well -- what she does well and what she does that's not so good," Mauresmo said. "I don't think she likes my game too much, but this was probably the closest match we've played."

Mauresmo will contest the final against another Russian, the unheralded Elena Likhovtseva, who followed up her quarterfinal win over Jennifer Capriati with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 upset of her No. 3-seeded countrywoman Anastasia Myskina.

The doubles final will be Japan's (5)Asagoe/Sugiyama (d. French (WC)Mauresmo/Pierce in the semifinals) against (4)Huber/Tanasugarn (d. (1)Ruano Pascual/Suarez in three).

Stockholm Results
Due to the WTA Tour's inept scheduling, running the Tier IV Stockholm event during the same week as an "elite" Tier I Montreal event, Tennis-X is voluntarily aiding the WTA this week by not running results from Stockholm. We hope this will help to elevate the Montreal results in the eyes of casual fans and avoid confusion, while at the same time shielding fans from the heinous field in Stockholm. We apologize for having to do the WTA's job in raising the status of their Tier I events, and apologize to you diehard Tier IV fans. Future note: Tier I = good, Tier IV = public park event, don't put them in the same calendar slot.

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
In what was possibly the best match of the year to date, elder American statesman Andre Agassi, who currently resides outside the Top 10 on the ATP Rankings, went old school on new-wave American and No. 2-ranked Andy Roddick to advance to the Masters Series-Cincinnati final with a 7-5, 6-7(2), 7-6(2) victory.

Agassi withstood a 27-ace barrage from the Babolat-wielding Roddick, who was attempting to retain his Cincinnati title from 2003 and will take another rankings hit come Monday.

"Every day I'm answering questions about retirement, except for tonight, so it's the life,” said Agassi who has been hit with the “R question” week-in and week-out. “That's the life I live now. If I don't go out there and produce, it's disappointing."

The final is the first for Agassi since the year-ending Masters Cup last November when he was pasted in straight sets by Roger Federer.

"It felt great to be out there,” Agassi said. “It was a high-intensity match and a lot of great rallies. We both brought our game, you know. It was one of those that could have gone either way the whole time, it felt like."

Added Roddick: "It's disappointing. He played great. I was hanging on the whole time. He didn't really give me an open look. There weren't a lot of unforced errors, and that's as clean as someone's hit the ball against me, so props to him."

In the final Agassi will face another former No. 1 in Lleyton Hewitt, who has little problem in disposing of Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3 6-2.

The Australian counter-puncher put on an unusual serving display to advance into the final.

"I was just trying to clean up my service games and wait for an opportunity -- and I got it," Hewitt said. "I feel like I've been playing pretty well for a while now, and here I have been putting results together day in and day out."

En route to the final Hewitt also beat former No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten, Tim Henman, and former No. 1 Marat Safin.

Hewitt leads his career meetings with Agassi 4-3, but the American won their last match-up at the 2002 US Open.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Kudos to Andre Agassi, who pulled another rabbit out of his hat Saturday night playing some of his best tennis in many many years...Props also to Andy Roddick, who may simply have the best serve ever. Consider how many times he pulled a 120+ second serve to get himself out of a jam last night, and really how many times he's done it in the past year. It's almost at will as the 21-year-old has added 10+mph on his second serve in the last year...After the epic match with Roddick, Agassi said the battle and the quality of play reminded him of his US Open thriller with Pete Sampras back in 2001...To win his 59th career title, Andre Agassi will have to beat three straight former Slam winners and three straight former No. 1s (Moya, Roddick, Hewitt)...Lleyton Hewitt must have been delighted to see Andre Agassi expend all that energy Saturday night. Will be tough for Agassi to recover for Hewitt in just 16 hours...Andre Agassi on his hip problem: "It's a slightly torn laborum over the course of years. It wasn't sort of one move that tore it, it was just the wear and tear every year. So the area is susceptible to getting inflamed and creating a pretty biting pain for me. Different things can set it off. I think this year I was working more flexibility into my program, and I think I put myself -- put my hip in more compromising positions than it was used to being in, and I think I paid the price for that."...Despite the German Tennis Federation holding that they will not let Anca Barna and Marlene Weingartner compete at the Athens Olympics even though their rankings make them eligible, that WTA Tour decided not to pull the rankings point from the Olympics. Way to hit them where it doesn't hurt, after all the threats. In a statement from WTA CEO Larry Scott: "Despite the inability of the ITF and IOC to live up to the spirit of our Olympic Agreement, and of the harm that has been done to two deserving athletes, the WTA Tour intends to honor our commitment to the Olympic Games, and award ranking points for the Olympic Tennis Event in Athens. This decision is based upon two primary principles, fairness and responsibility -- fairness to the 64 women's tennis players who dreamed, prepared, planned for and will compete with pride in the Olympic tennis event and who we will not allow to be penalized for the unjust decision of another party; and responsibility to our fans and the Olympics themselves, by refraining from taking an action that may have contributed to a decision by some players to not to play in Athens." Read into that what you will...There will be seven police/security officers for every one athlete at the Athens Olympic games...The Olympic men's tennis will be best-of-three sets until the final...For 17 straight days in the U.S., NBC and its four cable siblings -- MSNBC, CNBC, USA and Bravo -- along with sister Spanish broadcaster Telemundo and NBC's high-definition digital TV affiliates will carry a combined total of 1,210 hours of Athens Olympic programming. Bravo will cover the tennis...French Open champ Gaston Gaudio aggrevated a right heel injury this week in Cincinnati and has pulled from the Athens Olympics, joining countryman Guillermo Coria on the sidelines...World No. 1 Roger Federer will carry the Swiss flag at Friday's opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics...Apparently it is not the German Tennis Federation that are acting like a-holes, but the German Olympic Committee. Our bad, we will redirect the mortars.